Survey Points to “Priority” of Cloud Computing
One day I read about a survey saying there’s little interest among businesses for data storage on the cloud; another day I read about a poll that leads me to believe the opposite. Such contradictions make me:
a) Question the polls themselves or
b) Remind myself how very enthusiastic—and yet at the same time unsure—IT folks and their CIOs are about the cloud these days – despite all the talk about it.
The latest poll comes from ReliaCloud, a Minneapolis-based IT infrastructure developer. It surveyed 150 IT decision makers at small and large companies across the US, and found that three-quarters of them said development of cloud computing was a priority for 2010.
In the poll, a majority, 85% or so of decision makers were either currently implementing cloud computing services or had plans to do so within the next year. Further, 95% of IT decision makers think that cloud computing will either radically shift or have a definite impact on how technology services will be provided inside their companies.
Here’s the conflicting part about data storage. The survey found that the services that would be best suited to cloud computing were Web applications, databases and data storage.
So why does one survey reveal IT folks saying “yes” to data storage on the cloud and another saying “no?” I think businesses are still torn up about issues like security and support, while at the same time they’re attracted to the cloud’s promises of up-time/high availability, performance and cost savings.
Let’s wait and see how cloud providers in 2010 act to reassure IT people on their doubts and – through development and enhancements – also affirm their positive beliefs.